“Telecare” is a term that covers an extensive range of care-based technologies and services provided in a client’s home that go beyond the functions and applications of existing personal response systems.

Telecare systems may respond to an immediate need, such as a medical emergency or a fall, or monitor client data in a preventative mode with services programmed to monitor an individual’s health or well-being. Often known as “lifestyle monitoring”, this can provide proactive early warning of deteriorating health, prompting a response from family or professionals.

Another form of Telecare, often called “telemedicine”, is designed to complement the delivery of healthcare. It works by monitoring vital signs – such as blood pressure – and transmitting the data to a response centre or clinician’s computer, where it is monitored against parameters set by the individual’s clinician.

Telecare systems have been implemented for community care applications in the UK for some years now.

VCi is able to provide a very cost-effective Telecare solution identical to that currently supplied in the United Kingdom.

The paper below describes VCi’s capacity to supply residential Telecare equipment into the Australian healthcare market.